As tools for gathering and displaying data evolve, operators are presented with increasing information. In the case of an airborne operator, such information may include basic flight data, aircraft system data, terrain and obstacle data, and targeting data. With limited screen area for traditional 2-D presentation of this information to a pilot, a desirably sized presentation may become cluttered with displayed information. Such clutter may lead to misinformation, pilot information overload, and ultimate pilot miscommunication of critical system information.
Additionally, when 2-D symbology is overlaid on top of a Synthetic Environment (SE) single screen aircraft display, clutter may become a serious barrier to desired visual information communication. Display clutter becomes an increasing issue when, in addition to the 2-D symbology, the lines and other features presented in SE start to compete for the same 2-D screen space on the display surface. For example, a terrain display presenting power lines as straight or slightly curved lines may interfere with straight lines of a displayed pitch ladder. Such interference may lead to pilot confusion.
Multiple SE contexts may also interfere with each other, such as terrain with weather. The problem may become especially apparent when colors of individual SE elements are close to each other. For example, a red weather thunderstorm cell and a red terrain warning.
Three dimensional (3-D) presentations are well-known in the art of display technology. Additionally, stereoscopic 3-D (S3D) displays have been viewed dating back to the double-image manually handheld stereoscope. Many of these displays are capable of communicating more information than a simple 2-D display. This increased amount of information may prove valuable to a viewer. However, within the cockpit of a vehicle, a severe limitation on screen space requires a single display to communicate information.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for simultaneous display of SE and operational symbology information to an operator where a hierarchy of individual elements of desired system-to-pilot communication is stereoscopically presented in a plurality of S3D depth layers.